Hey, thanks for checking us out. We just launched our website for our very own Crooked Beat Label. Check out our releases and samples of our most recent release, A Bang on the Ear featuring Insurgence DC, Don Zientara and Mobius Strip.

Due
to the pressing plants being so back up throughout 2014. Our best
sellers this year are somewhat unusual. Two of our top sellers come from
our own in house label Crooked Beat Records! Insurgence DC comes in at
Number 1 with 72 copies sold in our store. Mobius Strip comes in at number 4 with 49
copies sold. Few people knew who the bands were before they were
released. But our main focus and purpose
of having an in house record label is help expose bands to our
customers. So far the label is doing exactly what we want it to
do.Thanks to everyone who picked up one of these records from us and
also from other stores.
We have 3 more 7" releases scheduled to come out on Record Store Day 2015! Stay tuned for that announcement soon!

We at Crooked Beat are also very proud to state that 5 of the 15 Top sellers are from DC based artists/bands!

Several other of our best selling titles have been available for years.
But they continue to sell they like they are new releases. e.g. Neutral
Milk Hotel, Fugazi, The National. Arcade Fire.

It should be
noted several new releases that are from 2014 would have sold much more
had it not been for the long period of time we would have to wait for an
album to be repressed. Beck, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys and War On
Drugs would have sold triple the amount for us had they been
consistently available on vinyl. Let's hope this vinyl situation
improves in 2015

Anyway here is our Top Sellers of 2014!

1. Insurgence DC-True To Life/Man In Black- 7"

(Crooked Beat release)

2. Neutral Milk Hotel- In The Aeroplane OVer the Sea

3. Beck- Morning Phase

4. Mobius Strip- Palabras Poridas

(Crooked Beat Release)

5. EX Hex- Rips

6. St. Vincent- S/T

7. War On Drugs-Lost In The Dream

8. Black Keys- Turn Blue

9. Jack White- Lazaretto

10. Fugazi- First Demo

11. National- Boxer

12. Fugazi- Repeater

14. Arctic Monkeys- AM

15. Arcade Fire- Funeral

Check out the 2 releases that Crooked Beat now has out on their own label7" releases by Insurgence DC and Mobius Strip.

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HARD TO FIND new and used vinyl records of INDEPENDENT LABEL MUSIC & OBSCURE MAJOR LABEL RELEASES EXISTING OUTSIDE THE RADAR OF THE MAINSTREAM.

We specialize in Punk/Indie/Classic Reggae/Rock/Soul NEW and USED LPS, (Domestic & Import)!

We also stock thousands of USED LPs in the genres of Classic Rock, Soul, Punk, New Wave, Reggae Soundtracks, Jazz and many other genres. We also have an extensive selection of hard to find T-Shirts.

Crooked Beat Records is located in the heart of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington DC. Address: 2116 18th St NW, Washington DC 20009. We are about a 10 minute walk from the Dupont Circle stop on the Red Line. Metered and paid parking garages are available in Adams Morgan. But be prepared to have a roll of quarters with you because metered parking is expensive. The parking decks are slightly better priced if you are going to be in Adams Morgan for more than three or four hours.

Crooked Beat blog

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Since 1997, Crooked Beat has always prided itself in being fiercely independent by primarily focusing on and specializing in stocking releases from independent and import labels. We also have always carried a lot of New CD Releases from the major record labels (WEA, Capitol, Sony/BMG, UNI) and their affiliates.

In recent years, however, most of these major labels have not been making their New CD Releases available to independent distributors to purchase at a fair price, in comparison to the prices the big box stores are paying for the same product. This in turn has caused a lot of our distributors to no longer consistently stock-- and sometimes not even stock in their warehouses-- certain major label New CD Releases at all. This has made it very difficult for independent stores to obtain a larger number of major label New Release CDs.
Furthermore, there is now a substantial penalty being enforced by One Stops/Distributors in the event that an independent record store returns major label product that does not sell. This makes it difficult for an independent store to even want to consider stocking, and more importantly, to take a chance on a new artist that is affiliated with a major label.

Due to these unfortunate circumstances and the fact that major label sales on CD have become less than 3% of our sales since 2004, we will be extremely limiting our stock of major label New CD Releases from the following labels: WEA-Warner, Elektra, Atlantic, Capitol/EMI, Sony/BMG, UNI and their affiliates.